Writer, director, and producer of Oscar-nominated Boogie Nights (1997), a sprawling, in-your-face examination of the Los Angeles porn scene in the 1970s. Other films he wrote and directed include the shortCigarettes and Coffee (1993), Hard Eight (1996), and the Oscar-nominated Magnolia (1999). Anderson was drawn to filmmaking at an early age. As a high-school student, he made a short faux documentary, Dirk Diggler, about a well-endowed porn star. The title character froom his first foray into filmmaking would later reappear as the main character in Boogie Nights.